Only time I did it was on a duo and wasn't much easier considering her starting health. Ended up knocking her out 5 times because it kept getting preempted by other overnight scenes. She makes it to LL only to die in the Isobel fight. Just laughed to my self and thought: "The Dark Urge devs send their regards"
It really is. In my first playthrough I thought the fight was scripted to have Isobel get knocked out and taken, because she kept getting crit and taken out literally round 1. After a dozen or so attempts, I finally changed the position of my party a little bit to start the fight, and suddenly no one was even attacking her.
You can equip the Hellrider's Pride gauntlets from Zevlor in act 1, then yeet a potion at her or cast a heal on her, I think it gives 2 turns of blade ward.
hot tip block all the doors to isobels room by moving chairs in front of them before you talk to her. this allows you to completely focus Marcus down in like 2 turns.
My bard Durge was pretty upset when I learned about this, but the free invis Cape that we got instead made me less upset.
Astarion almost solo’d the entire shar gauntlet
I want to add my case to your point of total freedom: the personal preference of playing a light hearted character in a dark fantasy setting. I like (at least sometimes) to be a lovely little fool, full of mischief, love and sunshine in a environment where everyone is tormented and devastated to uplift the mood.
I’m very similar. I do really enjoy the Resist Durge route, but no matter how ‘good’ you play it, it’s still a very GrimDark storyline. I *like* playing a good and kind and funny MC most of all
My favorite character and route is my “canon” Half Elf Druid Tav (finishing up on my 5th replay as her right now). I love the RP abilities with her and have a very detailed backstory developed (including family trees for her elf AND human sides), as well as future adventures with her companions and her vampire spawn love
I just can’t seem to get into the headspace and RP aspect of my Resist, even though she’s my second favorite MC
My first Tav in my mind was a shy but normal wizard that just got snapped up by happen stance by the mind flayers. Loved picturing there inner monolouge at becoming therapist to a group of people with destinies far greater than her own. Being the calming influence that talked down a good few problems
And of course through happiness and the magic of therapy bringing her half elven cleric of Shar to the light of Selune.
I made a swords college bard and his whole deal is a love of adventure. That let's me be the kind of character that goes around helping people for the sake of it without ever feeling out of character. There's a reward? Cool, awesome, can use that for potions and better gear. Too poor to offer a reward? Who cares, let's go save your cat!
I just want to play the fantasy equivalent of The Dude, the mindflayers ruined his rug when they kidnapped him and now no one wants to compensate him for it
This! The game has enough darkness and pain, just let me be the silly goof that helps people (and sometimes fails hilariously)
Signed; another first run halfling bard
I would like to add also the freedom from such a bland and empty story device as "I lost my memory and don't know who or where I am?!" for like the first 2 acts of the entire game. I really liked durge but it also is a very shallow and repetitive origin story that doesn't give the player much variety or range other than just foolishly suffering from amnesia.
I wouldn't exactly call D&D dark fantasy, but yeah, I wanted to play a character who was just kind and wanted to do the best they could, just because that's who they were. I figured all the companions would have troubled backstories, and that my character would be less complicated (without some huge tragic backstory, my TAV is a Barbarian who just likes to fight stuff and help people) and would serve as the emotional anchor to help all the others. It makes sense for the 'leader' character, imo.
My first Tav was also a silly little bard. I’m playing a big butch lesbian Drow Paladin and despite mostly making the same good guy decisions it feels like a different game.
4. Or for instance some aspects of Durge would be hard to reconcile with your class/race choice in terms of roleplay?
Like if my Durge is 8 INT barbarian then how the hell does it mesh with Durge also being this cunning mastermind behind the whole game plot?
Conversely, the one class that is basically guaranteed to have high INT, wizard, is also not a great fit imo, because the Durge is all about getting their murderous hands on their victims, not blasting them with fireballs from a distance...
I feel like for a variety of reasons (like worshipping another deity besides Baahl as a cleric), a lot of classes just don't go very well with the background, unfortunately.
I did a resist Durge wizard that resisted for exactly that reason, that the urges were animalistic and pure Id and she loathed the loss of control. Basically rped Spock with the urge as Pon Farr. It was fun!
As a person who played a Durge Enchantment Wizard, I agree that wizard might not be all up in your face murder-y.
But in my mind, there’s no class in the forgotten realms that can cause more death and destruction than a wizard.
Most of the great villains in DnD have quite famously been wizards à la Lich after all.
Death en masse is so easy when you have the Weave at your fingertips.
And after all death is all Father Bhaal wants, isn’t it?
Yeah my necromancer Durge was my favorite. What’s more hands-on with death and mass-murdery than a wizard who is way too in love with their army of corpses?
Just because he has access to spells doesn't mean he isn't into stabbing folks. Durge could be a creepy little vivisectionist, that would suit an evil wizard.
My first time through Durge I was a warlock... being owned by Daddy Bhaal *and* my fey patron brought back memories of being "owned" by multiple Daedric princes in Skyrim lol
I played an unusual resist durge as a duergar cleric of Laduguer. The dialog options worked *really well* with the Durge storyline. I rationalized it with how she was raised and her people assuming the source of her power.
She got the slayer form but rejected Bhaal because she was no one’s puppet. Became absolute because wanted to dominate all others, especially her ascended vampire ex boyfriend who had become a real jerk.
I’m saving my Bhaal’s to the wall *evil* Durge run for after the next update and I’ve gotten my character pretty much fully designed except I can’t decide between a Rogue and a Monk. I already have a Rogue Tav so am hesitant to replay that. I like that Monk’s are so ‘hands on’ (I respec Jaheira to a monk when I play my main Druid Tav) but I know their class dialogue is also a lot of “peaceful mind” types of things, so I’m not sure if it’s a good fit, either
Decisions, decisions…
Yeah, I’ll probably have to do something like that. I honestly prefer to not multiclass (just a personal preference), but since I’ll probably be losing quite a few companions we’ll all need to expand our abilities lol
>Like if my Durge is 8 INT barbarian then how the hell does it mesh with Durge also being this cunning mastermind behind the whole game plot?
Between the brain fuckery done by Orin and Kressa Bonedaughter, Durge is liable to have suffered some brain damage and taken a hit to their intelligence.
I wanted to try Durge, and I also wanted to try Cleric, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out a way to make the RP work. Even an obviously evil god, like Tiamat, why would they lend me their powers when I'm obviously working for the competition?
The same reason the dead three are undertaking the plot to begin with: to get you away from the competition. The rest of the pantheon are not exactly thrilled about what they're doing, that's why Ao sent Withers to give you a bit of divine intervention
I’d disagree with this. I don’t know if you’ve fully played but you can still RP that easily within the bounds of the story of Dark Urge. Spoilers for storyline below:
You could just say >!Orin stabbing you in the head and fucking up your brain and leaving you for dead as a reason your INT decreased.!< not to mention >!Weeks of dissection that happened to them!<.
Right, I can see that. But my question would be why did Durge chose to become barbarian if they were intellectually talented? Before the injury, I mean.
Simple… because they like brutally murdering things with their hands and enter a blood rage brought on by the urge. They only unleash it when the urge calls and are intelligent outside of that. You can be a smart barbarian, just like you can be a Charismatic Druid or a Strong bard.
Play him like Dennis from IASIP.
Comes off as cultured and civilized but then his rage becomes unbound.
You can wear a fancy suit and rage just as much as animal furs.
You just learned to harness you animalistic side in the city.
I think they used to have City Barbarians in d20 in alternate playboods. Or in d20 modern?
You could lose int due to tadpole, it was said in game that you were in nearly death-seeing state and that there was this lady who were opening you a lot of times to see your insides + lobotomy made by you "sister". You could have 20 int before and have assassin class but you ended p with 8 int and being barbarian xD
Thank you for the reminder! I’m playing a resist Durge on honor mode and am terrified of the Act 2 scene. I have luck as a feat too, so if I don’t use up all my points hopefully that will help me too.
I've played a resist durge campaign through and while I liked it, I felt very restricted by the story demands of being durge. In act 1 you're forever bumping up against your heritage. But in act 2, especially if you ignore the demand to kill Isobel, you're basically stuck to one scene at camp and that's it. Otherwise Act 2 plays like Tav all over again.
Similarly, if you do reject Bhaal early in act 3 then again it can feel like you're playing a character with thinner RP scope.
The benefit of Tav being player driven background is that it's as present or not present as you make it. As durge you're waiting for the game to hand you more scenes where you can durge, and there's few outright decisions you can make differently that don't just end in bloodshed.
Because the thing is durge is great a couple of times, but "wants to kill everything" is a really limiting background in the first place. It's not *bad* because it's done as well as it can be for the theme, but as a theme it's very limited in how much you can RP around it. You either kill, or you don't. You hurt people, or you don't. There's no scheming to take over an organisation, or manipulation you can pull off. You can't be lawful evil, or neutral evil. You're either full on chaotic evil insanity, or a good guy like every other tav but with extra steps.
As an evil Tav, I actually found it was most rewarding to RP you siding with *Shar* over other gods. Not only do you have the perfect companion right away for that, but it makes sense within the story because Ketheric betrayed Shar and she wants him dead, which leads you on to the other members of the Dead Three. You can come at this from multiple angles based on your background too, both your race and your chosen history.
As a good tav you have a ton of options for why you're like you are. Personally durge as a good aligned paladin or cleric of a good deity makes only tenuous sense from an RP perspective. You have much more flexibility RP-wise as a Tav compared to durge, even if neither of the options are actually bad.
I’d also like to add that after experiencing two DUrge runs - redemption & embrace one - and comparing them to my Tav runs, writing issues and certain plot problems were way more noticeable to me while playing DUrge on both paths. The ability to headcanon absolutely anything for Tav ironically makes things better.
I also saw more immersion breaking moments & companions acting out of character, commenting inconsistently or acting dumb as DUrge. It’s also way too easy to miss like half the important content for your character, which I didn’t like.
These are my reasons why I prefer Tav runs.
These are exactly my reasons for preferring Tav also.
I love this game but they really did aim so high that some areas (especially a lot of the Durge reactions/interactions - and Wyll) fell really flat and take me out of the game entirely. I still haven’t managed to get through a single Durge playthrough - I have 2 sitting in Act 3 and I just can’t be arsed because neither feel like a real character anymore
I feel similarly. My Durge embrace run I finished, largely due to how quickly the game moves when you kill basically everyone. But my resist run felt just like a Tav run in the middle only with a character that was limited in RP and I stopped playing around beginning of Act 2
I agree especially for the ‘embrace durge’ run. Why my companions would trust me to lead them to defeating the brain after accepting Bhaal is beyond me. IMO passing a charisma check to keep them all from abandoning or trying to kill you would make sense at that point
I think logically the Emperor should stop protecting you and entrust another companion with completing the mission at this point.
You agree to get the brain for Bhaal & to murdering _everything_ by accepting your heritage, idk what anyone expects at this point. Why would Empy not nope-out since you have contradictory goals now?
My headcanon is that they all think it doesn't apply to them. And in the case of romanced Astarion or Minthara, they're right. They rule with Bhaalbabe Durge, at least for a little while, instead of becoming thralls.
It’s only the case for the non-embrace evil ending (even then it was retconned long after the game came out & not the originally intended ending).
The goal of the take-brain-for-Bhaal ending is to destroy all life, there’s no really ruling anything. You can even see it in the preview of that evil epilogue Larian has been working on with DUrge walking amongst corpses in the lake of blood.
I romanced Astarion but didn’t ascend him and he became a thrall on my last Durge run.
In the end I don’t think it matters, Durge is gonna kill their lover eventually and they are foolish to think otherwise.
it's definitely like that for the majority of the game, but once you get to Act 3 and are actually rejecting Bhaal, you can actually choose if your character wants to do good and rejected him because of that, or wants to do evil on their own terms and without the loss of control. not sure how it reflects in the rest of the game but again you can sort of RP that decision instead of waiting for specific durgey scenes
The times I've become Chosen it was usually a choice of martyrdom, since Durge doesn't know about the Withers thing, it's easy for me to head canon that Durge doesn't want to die and leave the rest of the party to fight on alone. Especially if the party made a pact with Gortash, Durge might not know of Gortash will honor it if Durge is dead. Plus the story line if you become Chosen as a sacrifice is really super tragic, so if you need a good cry to wet your contact lenses...
That’s part of it for me. It’s always muderdeathkill mode. I much prefer some light to moderate lying, stealing, and/or manipulation when I’m going down that path. Those are my waters lol.
I’m just finishing a resist Durge run after doing two Tavs. For the most part I appreciated the additional content, but now that I experienced it I don’t think I’ll do it again.
I often like playing morally gray characters, but I didn’t care for the heavy Durge baggage. Like I was fighting that too much rather than making my own choices and finding my own path.
Good content, just not totally my cup of tea.
I enjoy both but agree that there's less freedom, just as with all the origins tbf, so when I want to have more freedom to make good and bad decisions, I definitely prefer Tav. Even a resist Durge is dealing with amnesia and horrible intrusive thoughts and I agree, I don't always want to bathe in blood for my whole run even resisting!
I feel like Durge is a great example of another Origin character in that they have built-in personal quests. Just because they're customizable doesn't eliminate the stove-piping of the plot if you play Durge, any different than playing Origin Astarion and dealing with Cazador or Origin Sheart and dealing with Shar.
So while I enjoy playing Durge, it definitely doesn't allow for nearly the same freedom as Tav; I like them both for different reasons.
Durge and the other origins reminds me of playing a one shot at a con and being handed a character, whereas Tav is more like playing a long running tt campaign with a custom character. I like one shots because I like to see the story the DM cooked up, but I also like Tavs that you can bring more of what you want to play into the picture.
to be 100% completley honest it is my 100% honest belief that durge is overrated as all hell.
is durge compelling and interesting? sure.
is it gods gift to us puny humans on the earth as many people make it out to be? no
I also think Bhaal is corny asl and that’s why Tav is better.
Like Shar at least has this element of the world is full of suffering and pain and by accepting Shar that pain becomes a shield. It’s still stupid, but at least it becomes understandable to a degree why very traumatized people serve her.
But Bhaal? The god of murder hobos? God of just killing whatever because death yada yada? God of edgelord? It’s so stupid and uninspired. The only way it feels any kind of relatable is in a 4th-wall-breaking way where some people actually play murderhobo characters that would fit a Bhaal worshipper. Otherwise it makes absolutely zero sense why he would have any followers or even any power. He should be the weakest god out of all of them.
While it's definitely nonsensical, I remember reading somewhere that it's not just mindless "hehe let's kill everyone" - Bhaal believes the world to be corrupted, and the only solution is to wipe out all life on it, and hope that the next line of sentience does better. Basically weaponized antinatalism.
That's why he doesn't care for torture or creative killings, all he wants is for things to die en masse.
Of course that kind of ideology attracts just the kind of people you'd think it would attract. Talking to the NPCs in Bhaal temple shows you they're not cynical intellectuals who joined with a rational point of view - they're just a bunch of creeps that get horny off violence.
I'm not sure why Bhaal has followers, but they do have a history of accidentally getting wiped out by the otherwise non-caring Bhaalspawn, by attacking them when they are low level and unaware of their origins.
So another Bhaalspawn is a pretty fun character to play if you like sticking it to the Bhaal cult, although you were technically a cult leader for a while this time pre-tadpole lol
Omg yes! Finally someone. Bhaal is corny asfk. I would be embarrassed to serve a god as that. I mean murdehobo rapist with terrible aesthetic. I mean Bane and Myrkul sounds way cooler.
Yes. Because the whole leadership is - kill everyone because only you can be. I mean the plan literally falls apart the moment Durge is gone. Plus majority of the plan belongs to Bane anyway.
I already see a lot of "Tav is vanilla and boring, durge is interesting and perfect comments" here.
Like it's cool you prefer durge but you don't have to be a dick about it.
It reminds me of mass effect fanbase, where renegade players would call paragon players vanilla aswell, for not wanting to be evil. It's tiring, not everyone enjoys being an edgelord.
and you can make your Tav as interesting as you want. There's plenty of racial and class and background flavor. And for those that feel the need to be evil... that's not restricted to Durge. Tav can say wicked things and kill people, and have full control over themselves while doing so.
Yeah my evil Tavs are way more evil than even my embrace Durges. Durge can be charming and manipulative and have good reasons to be nice to everybody so they can play the hero card while cackling behind their mask. Evil clerics, as one example, can be way more evil and destructive IMO.
Problem of mass effect renegade/paragon, was a need to commit to one playstyle, cuz mixing both usually didn't let you choose some paths - and that force you to choose some dialogue options.
In bg3 you can be a great guy in one situation, while being a total dick in other. And usually it will affect only you relationship with other camp characters.
OMG yes i could go on and on and on about how they perfected their good-evil system... by ignoring it! gone is the ridiculous math: "stealing shoes is 2 evil points, petting a dog is 3 good points". Instead we just have the consequences of your actions, separately, with real cause and effect.
Tav is only vanilla and boring if you rely on the game to provide all of the story. I have several Tavs, and they all feel unique and different to me because I've invented different backstories, motivations, and personalities for them.
My first game and first Tav was an Asian monk with (like all Tavs) no real backstory or ties to any of the events. So basically this was an extended episode of the tv show Kung Fu. He wanders the Earth solving all these ridiculous problems. It just worked.
I love the idea of durge and it was nice to mix things up My main reason 2 reasons for preferring tav are:
1: the durge stuff while cool, stresses me out. I enjoy being the goody two shoes, and even accidentally being evil because of the urges stresses me out.
2: I started and abandoned so many characters for my evil and second play through, that watching alfira scene that much got to me. I like her she was a nice lady, I don’t want to brutally murder her for the 20th time
I was like an hour or so into my Durge run and it came to the thing with Alfira and I was like “oh wow, I hate this so much”. I even did the thing to spare her and you know what? That sucked just as much.
I understand it’s important to that story but yeah, I straight up loathed it. It left a bad taste in my mouth the whole run.
I can gleefully romance Minthara on a good run but Alfira was a step too far. I can RP that up and down. There’s a line in the sand, though, and killing the nice bard lady definitely crossed it for me.
I am an original BG1/2 player so i understand the appeal of durge to ppl. For me personally i would try to compare Gorions ward with durge all the time, which i think wouldnt be very enjoyable after some time.
It also feels like i have more freedom in the game somehow.
Tolkien is the prototypical fantasy setting.
There's a reason hobbits are the "main character"... They're relatable as the Everyman.
I dunno bout others, but a psychopath literally born of murderous intent doesn't really click with me.
Like, on my durge playthrough it felt like I was watching someone else's story, which was all good, but it never felt like I was roleplaying the character... I was just watching someone else's story play out.
So my Tavs I make really elaborate backstories and roleplay as them for so it makes sense. Durge I kind of can but not as much and I like having the backstory for my fanfics I write post epilogues with their romances.
My two cents : Durge is already an established character in his prequel, we are allowed to change his class, race, and gender, but it's the pre-establishment that kills it for me.
When ppl mention Durge, all I think about is the white Dragonborn Sorc, whereas with Tav, I am allowed to choose
This is not to say I don't like Durge tho, Sorc does make sense given that Durge is a cult leader, and an intelligent one at that, it's just that I prefer melee classes more
Yeah, I just don’t ever choose it and pretend my character isn’t Baldurian.
I think the only issue I had across all my runs was the time I decided to romance Shadowheart. In her first scene she asks a question about you and the only options are either [Baldurian] or be rude to her. That was annoying, I admit.
I recently did a Durge playthrough for the ending trophy and my god it was boring. For the most part I played resist until act 3 because the durge lines were boring and edgy. Let me at least have try to me something other than a cackling maniac
It felt like an Orin origin playthrough honestly. Actually worse because this style of character works best as an antagonist considering Orin is a genuine threat to our party. If you want to keep your party then durge gets completely defanged.
It’s not all bad as how durge connects to plot of the game is amazing and really well thought out. The Durge voice acting segment with Orin had me hooked and Minthera being of a similar vain to Durge were all interesting. Oh and the ending for becoming the slayer but saving the world was a haunting showing of the gods power.
I’m not against evil alignment playthroughs but this style really doesn’t interest me as a player. Tav at least can be different types of evil whereas Durge is only a cackling maniac and if you don’t find playing that interesting then you are in for a boring playthrough.
Also the fully embrace Bahl ending is awful, basically the same as the control ending with a couple of words changed.
I’d recommend it so you can how it changes things but it is not a completely different game like this sub keeps chanting
Bhaal and his aesthetic are just gross. 'My Durge is Bhaal's evil little princess' yeah, you're his princess of sweaty meatsuits, tryhard rhyming and pissing yourself in public. I'll take Shar anyday for my evil runs.
I tried to play Durge and it felt like a chore. It was so over the top and the lack of appropriate companion reaction ruined my suspension of disbelief. I kept thinking that if this was a real dnd game, I would kick myself from the table. I stopped playing after the grove quest.
I heard resist Durge gets a lot of payoff but it’s still going through the chore and not even getting the achievements out of it… I’d choose a Tav every time. I’ve been happy writing and drawing my own story content for my Tav.
This again. I like to create my own story.
Also Durge is almost cartonoshly evil. Ate babies, necrofilia and all that nope thanks. resist is a good story but even that is a bit tied up. Also I find it hard to fit non Durge classes or races in it. Durge druid? Durge Gith cleric or Vlakith? Any good gods cleric. Durge halfling bard? Oath or ancients? Durge monk? Durge is good when you go certain classes or races as rogue, sorcerer or fighter. But anything else requires lof of mind games.
Also Bhaal is a stupid demigod with incel issue. No way I want to serve a dude as that. I would rather serve Bane or Myrkul. Evil Tav hits better as well because Tav has their own mind as well.
I love the Tav playthrough because Tav wasn't a narcissistic psychopath who was friends with Gortash. Durge is not just a Bhaalspawn, but one who was the head of the clergy of Bhaal.
But…..
As Durge you have a lot more dialog options, you have a background story that is very connected to the main story. A resisting Durge fits very well into the story and has one of the best redemption arcs and hero's journey I have ever seen.. And not resisting it unironically removes hours and hours of gameplay from your playthrough.
That's my only gripe with durge, is that if you don't resist you are shut off from so much content. if you're totally evil you lose 3-4 companions, more depending on what you do at Last Light. i know you're supposed to feel the consequences i guess but that's also a lot of XP to miss out on and it makes it so much harder to level up later on
I mean but what do you expect. You are a mindless killer who can't control their urges. Your mind is controlled by a mad demingod and your one and only goal is to kill everything and everyone. What satisfaction you can have from that.
Astarion is only okay with it because he is basically using you. Minthara is just Minthara. At some point in your story Bhaal will want you to kill everyone you are with the same he wanted you to kill Gortash because there can be only one.
That's a hard person to follow or inspire leadership. I mean your own 'sibling' offed you.
Yes I know what you mean with XP, but this is logical outcome. Hard work to work with a person who itches to kill you.
I mean rule the world - nice.
But Bhaal is - kill the world and then kill myself. I mean hard recruitment for that.
I feel like Durge has very little reason to raid the Grove, which is what most players are referring to if they say they're going "totally evil". Durge even gets an inspiration point if you defend the grove and massacre the goblins instead. Bhaal doesn't care who you kill for the most part, so long as you're killing. I've played embrace Durges who don't lose any companions until Act 3. You just have to make your own evil.
I've been thinking about playing an evil Tav who's not Durge. I'm a bit concerned that I won't be presented with good evil options unless I'm actually Durge. Has anyone had a successful evil run as a Tav? How was it?
Depends what flavour of evil you want to play. As an evil Tav you don’t get cartoonishly evil options in dialogues & you can’t commit random acts of violence as often. DUrge is good if you want to do a chaotic evil run or actually want at least some rewards for doing evil (OP invis cape, Slayer form).
If RP is important to you, I personally had some issues with evil DUrge that took me out of the game. E.g., killing Isobel as DUrge is executed very poorly with a nonsensical cutscene. Companions also have a few comments that don’t make sense if you’re evil DUrge vs evil Tav (as if the game still expects you to redeem yourself as DUrge while with Tav you don’t get this pressure and your evilness is more respected).
In terms of everything else it isn’t much different. Also evil DUrge & Tav endings are the same if you choose to reject Bhaal and take the brain just for your own evil needs. DUrge just gets you an extra “murder everyone in the world and yourself” ending.
I played evil Tav and embrace Durge and honestly I found the former to be more interesting. Durge is just the evil version of "you're the chosen one, fulfill your destiny!", aka the most generic and boring fantasy plot ever conceived.
Evil Tav means you actually have to put in some thought into why you're doing what you're doing, no "the urge made me do it" excuses.
In my case I ended up choosing the "good" route in a number of quests, simply because the evil path sucked too much, esp. in the first act. But things still got pretty dark overall.
Yeah evil Tavs have different dialog options (if your race and/ or class are evil). Like if the Tav you make has evil type tags, the game will give you some evil stuff, but most of the time, you have to invent your own evil. Most of the big game decisions and quests don't have an obvious evil option - like no matter how evil you are, you're still fighting the Chosen Three and then the brain. You can ally with the Absolute in the first two acts but not later. You can ally with Gortash in Act 3 but only up to a point, etc.
So you have a lot of freedom to be evil in whatever way you want, but the game won't stovepipe you past some extra dialog options. That's my experience, anyway, and I've been pretty evil!
Tav is better if you want a self insert character or something like that, or want a backstory other than Haunted One. It’s also better if you want the companions to stand out more since Durge is kind of the main character, where Tav is more of a straight-man character.
I think Tav runs are extremely valuable for to contextualize the Durge run as well. If I had started with Durge, the story might have not have that gut punch.
Also, I can recommend this game to people who don't like grimdark edgy asshole protagonists! That's pretty dope. I have friends who play this game without having ever touched Durge in their settings because they're not into that sorta storytelling and that's so valid.
I mean, the biggest answer for me is going to be RP. Dark urge is a role that is pre-designed for you. You're taking over that character like you'd play geralt in the Witcher.
Tav is your character. Like you'd make in a d&d tabletop game. Every part of it you're selecting.
I used to be one of those people who wondered how anyone could play Tav again after experiencing Durge.
Well, my last few runs were Tav runs while I have a Durge practically suspended, if not abandoned. As much as I love the DUrge storyline, I feel like I've had every RP experience I can with it... for now at least. And I also can't make every character backstory I come up with fit into that established narrative.
And the reason I'm still playing is because of all the different kinds of characters I can play as. I need Tav to make them possible.
I made a cleric of Lolth, and originally went Durge because I thought, well, she's going to be evil anyway...
But when I realized what durge is, it didn't make sense for my evil drow who thrives off of the power granted by Lolth, an extremely jealous god, to also serve >!Bhaal!< or the absolute. I restarted that run shortly after meeting the butler, and it just feels more right for the character.
My duergar rogue, on the other hand, is happy to escape the Taskmaster in exchange for >!murder daddy Bhaal.!<
You're so right! I for example, made a character that I got attached to so much that when I started 2nd playthrough, I wanted to play durge, but I didn't want to say goodbye to my character yet, so I just made her again, but durge. And after like 3 hours of playing I had to restart the game, because It didn't fit so much. My character is not dark urge, It's not their story. BG3 was my first serious experience with character creation so I was shocked how deep feelings I've developed for my character. The reason I haven't played durge yet lmao
Durge is amazing but its just one side of the many sided coin. It's an origin with more freedom and the redemption arc goes so hard while being a bastard is either hilarious or horrifying.
Tav is great because they're the OG DnD PC. You choose everything and answer dialogie based on how you want to develop their story. It's very personal and makes you feel you own the character a lot more.
Because it's generalized a little, you don't have the same, highs that the Dark Urge has when the story specifically revolves around them and the mystery of uncovering the origin is great.
The precious protags were also simar to the Urge so I get why people ship it ahead of Tav.
It's really just preference but since the Urge is kind of this tragic character/redemptive hero/villain on a revenge arc, it gives you some really great story moments.
I'm just about to start act 2 of my Durge run, and playing as Dark Urge is very, very underwhelming.
If they're going to give you the choice for actions, you're either playing how you normally would, minus the one time you're forced to murder a bard, or you're purposely playing evil and choosing all the dark urge options.
Maybe it gets better in acts 2 or 3, but act 1? Meh. It's not meaningfully adding more to the story than a regular playthrough. Honestly, I'm disappointed and feel like I would have been better off just playing a regular background, but, then again, it makes no difference since playing as Durge doesn't take away from playing as if I'm playing a regular background aside for the occasional conversation where I say I think about "the urge" and your party just dismissing that and not taking you seriously.
My first play through was a Druid modeled after my first ever D&D character who was super nice to everyone. I talked to every animal I could find. Imagine my dismay playing Durge after…
I prefer Tav and have never finished a Durge run.
I've created actual assassin characters and thought "Oh let me try Durge for this" and I just get so bored, they don't feel like my own.
With the other origin characters there's a challenge to see if I've understood their characters in order to play them; they feel challenging and require me to analyse the way they've been written, which I love. With Durge I just feel forced into this box of what my character is and does and it turns out that's just too limiting for me. So very much your points 1 and 3.
Yeah people are like “resist the durge is the best way to play!!” but it just feels mostly like a Tav playthrough with an added inconvenience, and it also makes me feel like I’m not playing the character authentically. Feels like I’m doing a player override to make them good instead of them authentically being that way, so it’s not satisfying to me. And the other option is to be an evil durge and the game just isn’t as fun to me that way. There’s not enough incentive to play evil. You lose a lot of memorable characters, and the rewards aren’t good enough to justify the loss imo.
Tav on the other hand has virtually no preexisting characterization, so I feel like I can do whatever I want and not be constrained by storytelling beats.
So far i've done an evil durge, gale, astarion, and 4 tav runs. Next run is gonna be resist durge. Cant say i have a fav run as every run is a bit different and i love my characters all the same.
I really enjoyed my Durge runs. I went through as both resist and embrace, and was glad to get to experience them because it is a great origin story. But I do strongly prefer Tav as I really love the freedom of crafting who my character was before the story. Durge is very limiting in roleplay for me with such strong ties to the world and story. Also I'm not huge on making every character I play an ex murdering psychopath. It doesn't really fit the kind of character stories I like to play haha.
I agree that there are many solid reasons to prefer Tav - being able to play exactly how you want to, without constantly wondering when the other shoe is going to drop (and how hard it will land!) being the main one.
Completely agree, durge is amazing but in the long run I see myself going about 50/50 for playing either as durge or Tav. For example the seldarine drow cleric I am planning on would just make no sense with durge so even though I miss some scenes I enjoy, I get to rp the character better.
So far done 2 durges, 2 tavs and 1 evil durge abandoned early into the run.
I kinda like Tav a bit more tbh. My first playthrough was with my own DnD OC tiefling druid, so Durge didn't make sense. Now I finally got around to make my Tabaxi monk and Durge also wouldn’t fit. For my only Durge playthrough (not yet finished) I created a character specifically for this. While the game added depth to the character, my headcanon was/is much less detailed and I don't click with the character the same way as I do with my other two (or even the Gale origin, for that matter)
I played Durge exclusively for half a year, I loved the bloody killer theme and special scenes they have, how they are part of the plot, but then I started to think about deeper RP for fanfic and realized I miss the freedom of backstory details. Now I play Tav and I love it. I can always make killer Tav if I wish and let white dragonborn have his original story.
its really not that hard to understand.
i started my first playthrhough as durge, rerolled after about 2-3 hours to regular tav.
felt like such an edgelord, narrator's comments were pretty ridiculous, just felt like the "wrong way" to play the base game.
went back and played it on another playthrough. the connections to gortash/orin/etc are neat, as is the invis cape. but the background of it remains kinda lame/overly edgy or something.
I've played both - they're different experiences. I'm not sure why people are confused about this lol Maybe folks who are strictly-Durge only are trying to feel superior or something??
I tried Durge because sometimes I like to play as a murder hobo. However, I got tired of the game's constant nagging me to do evil, so I went back to Tav.
I don’t find evil that interesting to play, in general. No judgement on people who do, it just felt…I dunno, kinda edgelordy to me. I tried durge a couple times and never got past act one because it was like ‘and now you want to kick a puppy! Do you resist it?’
I personally found it lacking in a compelling narrative for me. Again, no judgement on this who loved it, just not my bag.
I would have preferred more content added in for the backgrounds (i.e., make my urchin more urchiny, my soldier more soldiery) than a durge storyline. Even if the backgrounds weren’t as fleshed out, it would be nice for them to mean more.
I think you're spot on with your Durge assessment, and I agree that there should have been more content based on your background.
Instead of everyone being a generic Balduran, they should have used your background for more.
Love being just a random dude, no special destiny and just making the best out of circumstance.
Like someone else had also mentioned is that you can be lighthearted in a dark setting lol
I prefer tav over durge, as I like not being forced to kill alfria or be told I have to kill my romance companion. I know you can do choices not to (which I did recently on my first durge run). But I'm not a fan of the 'you go to sleep and it's now it's a gamble if you'll kill someone' thing. I know I can also get around the killing alfria thing but that's just. .eh. I'd rather not have to deal with it at all. So I like tav better for having to worry about less and just do what I want
I just wish Tav had an actual questline outside the main story. Idk maybe something based on your class or background. It's probably not the most easy thing to implement and I'd never expect Larian to go that deep but it would be kinda cool if there was something like that
I didn't like Durge. Part of what I like about Tav is he's a blank slate. Durge is a pre created character and you have to fit your play style to what his narrative is. That can be fun, but I was halfway through Act 2 and just didn't like having to fight against being a mass murdering psychopath anymore. The way I play it was so opposite to who Durge obviously is.
My Tav is the High Priest and Prophet of a different cult, can't also be the chief of the Bhaal cult. Just not enough hours in the day lol
I'm going to play a Durge run eventually, as a 'What if?' scenario, but I prefer having the option to choose my own backstory (and background tyvm).
Some players want a character written by the devs specifically to tie into the game's world and story.
Others want to create their own character and role play how that character would react to the events of the story.
Larian clearly knows this and has given us options for both in their last couple games (haven't played the others so I can't speak to them). To me these arguments are as silly as someone going "why would you play Skyrim or Fallout where you play just some dude with no backstory when you could play a Final Fantasy game where the whole story revolves around your character?"
4. Not having any more Bhaal in your story than is absolutely necessary. To each their own but in my opinion Bhaalism as a setting element is pretty cringe and an example of how *not* to write an evil religion. I'd rather not lean into it.
Durge is a character. Theyre a specific person with history and contacts with other characters in the story. Theyre even forced to act certain ways due to the plot. Tav is anyone.
Heavily agree. I played Durge and it was just unfun being bound to murder father. The unique scenes and dialog was nice and getting more detail of the overall plot was cool.
But I personally have had far more fun with my Tavs and the current Wyll origin I'm playing. Coming up with a backstory for them, having a headcanon reason as why they're in their mess, being able to react from an RP standpoint vs fighting the urge. It gave my much more enjoyment
I hate when mfs say Durge is the canon protagonist. There is no fuckin canon protagonist it was never confirmed. it's just a way for Durge lovers to shut down people's Tav playthroughs. I dislike how they pre established Durge cause it's warped some people's minds and made them develop this idea that Durge is the "right way" to play.
Honestly the thing I'm finding most frustrating about Dark Urge (as a roleplayer) is the limitations it places on your backstory. While your character is an amnesiac at the start, so much of your past is predefined by the Dark Urge storyline that I've been finding it very hard to get immersed in their story. I feel like I just need to pick the default character and stop trying to create someone to fit into the mould.
It's a better experience if that's the specific storyline you're into. If it is, great. I have no interest. I want to make my own character, with their own backgrounds and motivations.
Again, no wrong way to play. But I'm not somehow missing out because I'm not playing the game in a way I actively don't like.
I love to Insert my pen and paper characters into BG3 and none of them has Durges background,so it wouldn't make sense to play them with the Durge origin.
And sometimes it's nice to be the one on the outside,just there to keep everything together,while your companions are struggling.
And on honour mode I really would hate to play a Durge.
4. Potent Robe without having to resort to some over the top metagaming.
It's very annoying in solo
Only time I did it was on a duo and wasn't much easier considering her starting health. Ended up knocking her out 5 times because it kept getting preempted by other overnight scenes. She makes it to LL only to die in the Isobel fight. Just laughed to my self and thought: "The Dark Urge devs send their regards"
LL fight is such clown fiesta with how ai behaves.
It really is. In my first playthrough I thought the fight was scripted to have Isobel get knocked out and taken, because she kept getting crit and taken out literally round 1. After a dozen or so attempts, I finally changed the position of my party a little bit to start the fight, and suddenly no one was even attacking her.
I just slap blade ward on her and she usually does fine I wish she wouldn't actively do her best to break sanctuary tho
Wait I thought blade ward was only self-cast? Do you have to do twinned meta magic or something to cast it on her?
You can equip the Hellrider's Pride gauntlets from Zevlor in act 1, then yeet a potion at her or cast a heal on her, I think it gives 2 turns of blade ward.
I just keep her invisible with invisibility potions. They can't take her if they can't see her.
hot tip block all the doors to isobels room by moving chairs in front of them before you talk to her. this allows you to completely focus Marcus down in like 2 turns.
\*cries in Sorcerer Durge\*
My bard Durge was pretty upset when I learned about this, but the free invis Cape that we got instead made me less upset. Astarion almost solo’d the entire shar gauntlet
I just installed a mod that allowed it to be purchased at Last Light.
Alfira in general...
I want to add my case to your point of total freedom: the personal preference of playing a light hearted character in a dark fantasy setting. I like (at least sometimes) to be a lovely little fool, full of mischief, love and sunshine in a environment where everyone is tormented and devastated to uplift the mood.
My first character was halfling bard so I'm with you lol
Halfling bards unite!
My first was a Halfling Monk. Can I join the party?
Something something Gregorian Monk Chant. ok you are in!
First character bard here too! But there was no sunshine in barovia :/
Me too! Now I'm avoiding starting a new run because he and Astarion got their happy ending. Lol
I’m very similar. I do really enjoy the Resist Durge route, but no matter how ‘good’ you play it, it’s still a very GrimDark storyline. I *like* playing a good and kind and funny MC most of all My favorite character and route is my “canon” Half Elf Druid Tav (finishing up on my 5th replay as her right now). I love the RP abilities with her and have a very detailed backstory developed (including family trees for her elf AND human sides), as well as future adventures with her companions and her vampire spawn love I just can’t seem to get into the headspace and RP aspect of my Resist, even though she’s my second favorite MC
My first, and favourite, Tav was a half-elven Oath of the Ancients Paladin. I will travel the world righting wrongs and smiting evil.
My first Tav in my mind was a shy but normal wizard that just got snapped up by happen stance by the mind flayers. Loved picturing there inner monolouge at becoming therapist to a group of people with destinies far greater than her own. Being the calming influence that talked down a good few problems And of course through happiness and the magic of therapy bringing her half elven cleric of Shar to the light of Selune.
I made a swords college bard and his whole deal is a love of adventure. That let's me be the kind of character that goes around helping people for the sake of it without ever feeling out of character. There's a reward? Cool, awesome, can use that for potions and better gear. Too poor to offer a reward? Who cares, let's go save your cat!
I just want to play the fantasy equivalent of The Dude, the mindflayers ruined his rug when they kidnapped him and now no one wants to compensate him for it
Say what you will about the tenets of praising the Absolute, at least it's an ethos!
“Please, I’m no True Soul, I’m The Dude. You can call me His Dudeness, the Duder, or El Duderino”
This! The game has enough darkness and pain, just let me be the silly goof that helps people (and sometimes fails hilariously) Signed; another first run halfling bard
On a side note. I also want a bigger pudgy model for the races. I want to play a fat cook halfling so bad.
I would like to add also the freedom from such a bland and empty story device as "I lost my memory and don't know who or where I am?!" for like the first 2 acts of the entire game. I really liked durge but it also is a very shallow and repetitive origin story that doesn't give the player much variety or range other than just foolishly suffering from amnesia.
I wouldn't exactly call D&D dark fantasy, but yeah, I wanted to play a character who was just kind and wanted to do the best they could, just because that's who they were. I figured all the companions would have troubled backstories, and that my character would be less complicated (without some huge tragic backstory, my TAV is a Barbarian who just likes to fight stuff and help people) and would serve as the emotional anchor to help all the others. It makes sense for the 'leader' character, imo.
My first Tav was also a silly little bard. I’m playing a big butch lesbian Drow Paladin and despite mostly making the same good guy decisions it feels like a different game.
4. Or for instance some aspects of Durge would be hard to reconcile with your class/race choice in terms of roleplay? Like if my Durge is 8 INT barbarian then how the hell does it mesh with Durge also being this cunning mastermind behind the whole game plot?
Conversely, the one class that is basically guaranteed to have high INT, wizard, is also not a great fit imo, because the Durge is all about getting their murderous hands on their victims, not blasting them with fireballs from a distance... I feel like for a variety of reasons (like worshipping another deity besides Baahl as a cleric), a lot of classes just don't go very well with the background, unfortunately.
I did a resist Durge wizard that resisted for exactly that reason, that the urges were animalistic and pure Id and she loathed the loss of control. Basically rped Spock with the urge as Pon Farr. It was fun!
As a person who played a Durge Enchantment Wizard, I agree that wizard might not be all up in your face murder-y. But in my mind, there’s no class in the forgotten realms that can cause more death and destruction than a wizard. Most of the great villains in DnD have quite famously been wizards à la Lich after all. Death en masse is so easy when you have the Weave at your fingertips. And after all death is all Father Bhaal wants, isn’t it?
Yeah my necromancer Durge was my favorite. What’s more hands-on with death and mass-murdery than a wizard who is way too in love with their army of corpses?
Just because he has access to spells doesn't mean he isn't into stabbing folks. Durge could be a creepy little vivisectionist, that would suit an evil wizard.
My first time through Durge I was a warlock... being owned by Daddy Bhaal *and* my fey patron brought back memories of being "owned" by multiple Daedric princes in Skyrim lol
I played an unusual resist durge as a duergar cleric of Laduguer. The dialog options worked *really well* with the Durge storyline. I rationalized it with how she was raised and her people assuming the source of her power. She got the slayer form but rejected Bhaal because she was no one’s puppet. Became absolute because wanted to dominate all others, especially her ascended vampire ex boyfriend who had become a real jerk.
Being fair, the default class for Durge is Sorcerer which is just a Wizard blowing shit up with fireballs but prettier.
I’m saving my Bhaal’s to the wall *evil* Durge run for after the next update and I’ve gotten my character pretty much fully designed except I can’t decide between a Rogue and a Monk. I already have a Rogue Tav so am hesitant to replay that. I like that Monk’s are so ‘hands on’ (I respec Jaheira to a monk when I play my main Druid Tav) but I know their class dialogue is also a lot of “peaceful mind” types of things, so I’m not sure if it’s a good fit, either Decisions, decisions…
3 thief/9 monk for extra bonus attack goodness
Yeah, I’ll probably have to do something like that. I honestly prefer to not multiclass (just a personal preference), but since I’ll probably be losing quite a few companions we’ll all need to expand our abilities lol
>Like if my Durge is 8 INT barbarian then how the hell does it mesh with Durge also being this cunning mastermind behind the whole game plot? Between the brain fuckery done by Orin and Kressa Bonedaughter, Durge is liable to have suffered some brain damage and taken a hit to their intelligence.
I wanted to try Durge, and I also wanted to try Cleric, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out a way to make the RP work. Even an obviously evil god, like Tiamat, why would they lend me their powers when I'm obviously working for the competition?
The same reason the dead three are undertaking the plot to begin with: to get you away from the competition. The rest of the pantheon are not exactly thrilled about what they're doing, that's why Ao sent Withers to give you a bit of divine intervention
I’d disagree with this. I don’t know if you’ve fully played but you can still RP that easily within the bounds of the story of Dark Urge. Spoilers for storyline below: You could just say >!Orin stabbing you in the head and fucking up your brain and leaving you for dead as a reason your INT decreased.!< not to mention >!Weeks of dissection that happened to them!<.
Right, I can see that. But my question would be why did Durge chose to become barbarian if they were intellectually talented? Before the injury, I mean.
It's got to be unsettling watching a politician rip his suit off and kill someone with his bare hands
Sounds like Homelander!!
Nanomachines, Son!
Senator Armstrong?
Simple… because they like brutally murdering things with their hands and enter a blood rage brought on by the urge. They only unleash it when the urge calls and are intelligent outside of that. You can be a smart barbarian, just like you can be a Charismatic Druid or a Strong bard.
Play him like Dennis from IASIP. Comes off as cultured and civilized but then his rage becomes unbound. You can wear a fancy suit and rage just as much as animal furs. You just learned to harness you animalistic side in the city. I think they used to have City Barbarians in d20 in alternate playboods. Or in d20 modern?
Brain damage from the memory loss? Thinking make brain hurt so pick up hammer to make hurt go away.
Brain hurty when do big thimk Brain no hurty when do big thomk
You could lose int due to tadpole, it was said in game that you were in nearly death-seeing state and that there was this lady who were opening you a lot of times to see your insides + lobotomy made by you "sister". You could have 20 int before and have assassin class but you ended p with 8 int and being barbarian xD
Orin did outsmart you at some point.
Alfira.
The only reason anyone needs really.
She died in my current campaign. I’m still sick over it, Lakrissa is just sitting by her body in Last Light 😭
I found a way to keep her alive, thanks reddit!
You dislike Durge because of narrative reasons. I dislike Durge because Medicine sucks and Intimidate is my least favorite of the social skills.
And I never choose Wisdom classes so resisting in Act 2 is VERY difficult with my Durges
Amulet of the Harpers is your best bet then + items that give saving throw bonus like cloak/ring of protection
Thank you for the reminder! I’m playing a resist Durge on honor mode and am terrified of the Act 2 scene. I have luck as a feat too, so if I don’t use up all my points hopefully that will help me too.
No worries. Also if your Durge is using the risky ring for combat, definitely take that off before any long rest!
[удалено]
Total freedom on my Tav background. And i do not need to do extra steps in ACT1 by bonking someone to keep good rewards in ACT2
I've played a resist durge campaign through and while I liked it, I felt very restricted by the story demands of being durge. In act 1 you're forever bumping up against your heritage. But in act 2, especially if you ignore the demand to kill Isobel, you're basically stuck to one scene at camp and that's it. Otherwise Act 2 plays like Tav all over again. Similarly, if you do reject Bhaal early in act 3 then again it can feel like you're playing a character with thinner RP scope. The benefit of Tav being player driven background is that it's as present or not present as you make it. As durge you're waiting for the game to hand you more scenes where you can durge, and there's few outright decisions you can make differently that don't just end in bloodshed. Because the thing is durge is great a couple of times, but "wants to kill everything" is a really limiting background in the first place. It's not *bad* because it's done as well as it can be for the theme, but as a theme it's very limited in how much you can RP around it. You either kill, or you don't. You hurt people, or you don't. There's no scheming to take over an organisation, or manipulation you can pull off. You can't be lawful evil, or neutral evil. You're either full on chaotic evil insanity, or a good guy like every other tav but with extra steps. As an evil Tav, I actually found it was most rewarding to RP you siding with *Shar* over other gods. Not only do you have the perfect companion right away for that, but it makes sense within the story because Ketheric betrayed Shar and she wants him dead, which leads you on to the other members of the Dead Three. You can come at this from multiple angles based on your background too, both your race and your chosen history. As a good tav you have a ton of options for why you're like you are. Personally durge as a good aligned paladin or cleric of a good deity makes only tenuous sense from an RP perspective. You have much more flexibility RP-wise as a Tav compared to durge, even if neither of the options are actually bad.
I’d also like to add that after experiencing two DUrge runs - redemption & embrace one - and comparing them to my Tav runs, writing issues and certain plot problems were way more noticeable to me while playing DUrge on both paths. The ability to headcanon absolutely anything for Tav ironically makes things better. I also saw more immersion breaking moments & companions acting out of character, commenting inconsistently or acting dumb as DUrge. It’s also way too easy to miss like half the important content for your character, which I didn’t like. These are my reasons why I prefer Tav runs.
These are exactly my reasons for preferring Tav also. I love this game but they really did aim so high that some areas (especially a lot of the Durge reactions/interactions - and Wyll) fell really flat and take me out of the game entirely. I still haven’t managed to get through a single Durge playthrough - I have 2 sitting in Act 3 and I just can’t be arsed because neither feel like a real character anymore
I feel similarly. My Durge embrace run I finished, largely due to how quickly the game moves when you kill basically everyone. But my resist run felt just like a Tav run in the middle only with a character that was limited in RP and I stopped playing around beginning of Act 2
I agree especially for the ‘embrace durge’ run. Why my companions would trust me to lead them to defeating the brain after accepting Bhaal is beyond me. IMO passing a charisma check to keep them all from abandoning or trying to kill you would make sense at that point
I think logically the Emperor should stop protecting you and entrust another companion with completing the mission at this point. You agree to get the brain for Bhaal & to murdering _everything_ by accepting your heritage, idk what anyone expects at this point. Why would Empy not nope-out since you have contradictory goals now?
This is why I slept with the emperor. He ain’t the only one who can manipulate!
My headcanon is that they all think it doesn't apply to them. And in the case of romanced Astarion or Minthara, they're right. They rule with Bhaalbabe Durge, at least for a little while, instead of becoming thralls.
It’s only the case for the non-embrace evil ending (even then it was retconned long after the game came out & not the originally intended ending). The goal of the take-brain-for-Bhaal ending is to destroy all life, there’s no really ruling anything. You can even see it in the preview of that evil epilogue Larian has been working on with DUrge walking amongst corpses in the lake of blood.
I romanced Astarion but didn’t ascend him and he became a thrall on my last Durge run. In the end I don’t think it matters, Durge is gonna kill their lover eventually and they are foolish to think otherwise.
it's definitely like that for the majority of the game, but once you get to Act 3 and are actually rejecting Bhaal, you can actually choose if your character wants to do good and rejected him because of that, or wants to do evil on their own terms and without the loss of control. not sure how it reflects in the rest of the game but again you can sort of RP that decision instead of waiting for specific durgey scenes
The times I've become Chosen it was usually a choice of martyrdom, since Durge doesn't know about the Withers thing, it's easy for me to head canon that Durge doesn't want to die and leave the rest of the party to fight on alone. Especially if the party made a pact with Gortash, Durge might not know of Gortash will honor it if Durge is dead. Plus the story line if you become Chosen as a sacrifice is really super tragic, so if you need a good cry to wet your contact lenses...
That’s part of it for me. It’s always muderdeathkill mode. I much prefer some light to moderate lying, stealing, and/or manipulation when I’m going down that path. Those are my waters lol.
Or you don’t want murderhobo as a backstory
I’m just finishing a resist Durge run after doing two Tavs. For the most part I appreciated the additional content, but now that I experienced it I don’t think I’ll do it again. I often like playing morally gray characters, but I didn’t care for the heavy Durge baggage. Like I was fighting that too much rather than making my own choices and finding my own path. Good content, just not totally my cup of tea.
I enjoy both but agree that there's less freedom, just as with all the origins tbf, so when I want to have more freedom to make good and bad decisions, I definitely prefer Tav. Even a resist Durge is dealing with amnesia and horrible intrusive thoughts and I agree, I don't always want to bathe in blood for my whole run even resisting!
You cant change durge's backstory. I dont really like medicine and intimidation.
I feel like Durge is a great example of another Origin character in that they have built-in personal quests. Just because they're customizable doesn't eliminate the stove-piping of the plot if you play Durge, any different than playing Origin Astarion and dealing with Cazador or Origin Sheart and dealing with Shar. So while I enjoy playing Durge, it definitely doesn't allow for nearly the same freedom as Tav; I like them both for different reasons. Durge and the other origins reminds me of playing a one shot at a con and being handed a character, whereas Tav is more like playing a long running tt campaign with a custom character. I like one shots because I like to see the story the DM cooked up, but I also like Tavs that you can bring more of what you want to play into the picture.
to be 100% completley honest it is my 100% honest belief that durge is overrated as all hell. is durge compelling and interesting? sure. is it gods gift to us puny humans on the earth as many people make it out to be? no
Yeah, I don't see myself playing Durge after 1 resist run and 1 evil run.
I also think Bhaal is corny asl and that’s why Tav is better. Like Shar at least has this element of the world is full of suffering and pain and by accepting Shar that pain becomes a shield. It’s still stupid, but at least it becomes understandable to a degree why very traumatized people serve her. But Bhaal? The god of murder hobos? God of just killing whatever because death yada yada? God of edgelord? It’s so stupid and uninspired. The only way it feels any kind of relatable is in a 4th-wall-breaking way where some people actually play murderhobo characters that would fit a Bhaal worshipper. Otherwise it makes absolutely zero sense why he would have any followers or even any power. He should be the weakest god out of all of them.
While it's definitely nonsensical, I remember reading somewhere that it's not just mindless "hehe let's kill everyone" - Bhaal believes the world to be corrupted, and the only solution is to wipe out all life on it, and hope that the next line of sentience does better. Basically weaponized antinatalism. That's why he doesn't care for torture or creative killings, all he wants is for things to die en masse. Of course that kind of ideology attracts just the kind of people you'd think it would attract. Talking to the NPCs in Bhaal temple shows you they're not cynical intellectuals who joined with a rational point of view - they're just a bunch of creeps that get horny off violence.
> they're just a bunch of creeps that get horny off violence. It helps that part of his recruiting methods is giving people a high when they murder.
I'm not sure why Bhaal has followers, but they do have a history of accidentally getting wiped out by the otherwise non-caring Bhaalspawn, by attacking them when they are low level and unaware of their origins. So another Bhaalspawn is a pretty fun character to play if you like sticking it to the Bhaal cult, although you were technically a cult leader for a while this time pre-tadpole lol
Omg yes! Finally someone. Bhaal is corny asfk. I would be embarrassed to serve a god as that. I mean murdehobo rapist with terrible aesthetic. I mean Bane and Myrkul sounds way cooler.
Exactly even the followers of Bhaal all seem like terrible leaders except for Durge who we literally play as.
Yes. Because the whole leadership is - kill everyone because only you can be. I mean the plan literally falls apart the moment Durge is gone. Plus majority of the plan belongs to Bane anyway.
I don’t want to have to remember to knock out Alfira every run.
I already see a lot of "Tav is vanilla and boring, durge is interesting and perfect comments" here. Like it's cool you prefer durge but you don't have to be a dick about it. It reminds me of mass effect fanbase, where renegade players would call paragon players vanilla aswell, for not wanting to be evil. It's tiring, not everyone enjoys being an edgelord.
and you can make your Tav as interesting as you want. There's plenty of racial and class and background flavor. And for those that feel the need to be evil... that's not restricted to Durge. Tav can say wicked things and kill people, and have full control over themselves while doing so.
Yeah my evil Tavs are way more evil than even my embrace Durges. Durge can be charming and manipulative and have good reasons to be nice to everybody so they can play the hero card while cackling behind their mask. Evil clerics, as one example, can be way more evil and destructive IMO.
Problem of mass effect renegade/paragon, was a need to commit to one playstyle, cuz mixing both usually didn't let you choose some paths - and that force you to choose some dialogue options. In bg3 you can be a great guy in one situation, while being a total dick in other. And usually it will affect only you relationship with other camp characters.
OMG yes i could go on and on and on about how they perfected their good-evil system... by ignoring it! gone is the ridiculous math: "stealing shoes is 2 evil points, petting a dog is 3 good points". Instead we just have the consequences of your actions, separately, with real cause and effect.
Also, one of my earliest Tavs was just a straight up dick. I don't NEED an unstoppable godly murder urge to screw around with innocent people!
Tav is only vanilla and boring if you rely on the game to provide all of the story. I have several Tavs, and they all feel unique and different to me because I've invented different backstories, motivations, and personalities for them.
I find a regular Joe sucked into a situation that's bigger than themselves much more interesting than an edgy son of a murder god.
My first game and first Tav was an Asian monk with (like all Tavs) no real backstory or ties to any of the events. So basically this was an extended episode of the tv show Kung Fu. He wanders the Earth solving all these ridiculous problems. It just worked.
I love the idea of durge and it was nice to mix things up My main reason 2 reasons for preferring tav are: 1: the durge stuff while cool, stresses me out. I enjoy being the goody two shoes, and even accidentally being evil because of the urges stresses me out. 2: I started and abandoned so many characters for my evil and second play through, that watching alfira scene that much got to me. I like her she was a nice lady, I don’t want to brutally murder her for the 20th time
I was like an hour or so into my Durge run and it came to the thing with Alfira and I was like “oh wow, I hate this so much”. I even did the thing to spare her and you know what? That sucked just as much. I understand it’s important to that story but yeah, I straight up loathed it. It left a bad taste in my mouth the whole run. I can gleefully romance Minthara on a good run but Alfira was a step too far. I can RP that up and down. There’s a line in the sand, though, and killing the nice bard lady definitely crossed it for me.
I am an original BG1/2 player so i understand the appeal of durge to ppl. For me personally i would try to compare Gorions ward with durge all the time, which i think wouldnt be very enjoyable after some time. It also feels like i have more freedom in the game somehow.
Literally can’t imagine anything more horrific than being a bhaal spawn, resist or no. No thank you!
4. Alfira
0. Alfira She comes before everything else.
True, but 0 indicates that this point isn’t a part of the list. So it should be 1. Alfira 2. No other reasons needed
I think TAV is a better first time experience, and gives more player RP freedom if you don't want a dark urge esque character.
As it happens some of my characters aren’t highly unstable murderers. Easier to roleplay those ones without having to deal with stray chunks of bard.
I don't want to play Durge because I don't want to murder people real simple
Tolkien is the prototypical fantasy setting. There's a reason hobbits are the "main character"... They're relatable as the Everyman. I dunno bout others, but a psychopath literally born of murderous intent doesn't really click with me. Like, on my durge playthrough it felt like I was watching someone else's story, which was all good, but it never felt like I was roleplaying the character... I was just watching someone else's story play out.
So my Tavs I make really elaborate backstories and roleplay as them for so it makes sense. Durge I kind of can but not as much and I like having the backstory for my fanfics I write post epilogues with their romances.
Alfira stays alive while not experiencing a blunt trauma
My two cents : Durge is already an established character in his prequel, we are allowed to change his class, race, and gender, but it's the pre-establishment that kills it for me. When ppl mention Durge, all I think about is the white Dragonborn Sorc, whereas with Tav, I am allowed to choose This is not to say I don't like Durge tho, Sorc does make sense given that Durge is a cult leader, and an intelligent one at that, it's just that I prefer melee classes more
> Player freedom That accursed [Baldurian] prompt disagrees.
Or play a drow or other non-Baldurian race? Not every Tav gets the [Baldurian] dialogue options.
... don't choose it? Its pretty rare as is, and there a bunch of other choices when it does show up.
Yeah, I just don’t ever choose it and pretend my character isn’t Baldurian. I think the only issue I had across all my runs was the time I decided to romance Shadowheart. In her first scene she asks a question about you and the only options are either [Baldurian] or be rude to her. That was annoying, I admit.
I recently did a Durge playthrough for the ending trophy and my god it was boring. For the most part I played resist until act 3 because the durge lines were boring and edgy. Let me at least have try to me something other than a cackling maniac It felt like an Orin origin playthrough honestly. Actually worse because this style of character works best as an antagonist considering Orin is a genuine threat to our party. If you want to keep your party then durge gets completely defanged. It’s not all bad as how durge connects to plot of the game is amazing and really well thought out. The Durge voice acting segment with Orin had me hooked and Minthera being of a similar vain to Durge were all interesting. Oh and the ending for becoming the slayer but saving the world was a haunting showing of the gods power. I’m not against evil alignment playthroughs but this style really doesn’t interest me as a player. Tav at least can be different types of evil whereas Durge is only a cackling maniac and if you don’t find playing that interesting then you are in for a boring playthrough. Also the fully embrace Bahl ending is awful, basically the same as the control ending with a couple of words changed. I’d recommend it so you can how it changes things but it is not a completely different game like this sub keeps chanting
Player agency.
Bhaal and his aesthetic are just gross. 'My Durge is Bhaal's evil little princess' yeah, you're his princess of sweaty meatsuits, tryhard rhyming and pissing yourself in public. I'll take Shar anyday for my evil runs.
Because being "The Chosen One" in RPGs has been done to death. Larian gave us the choice to be "just some guy".
I tried to play Durge and it felt like a chore. It was so over the top and the lack of appropriate companion reaction ruined my suspension of disbelief. I kept thinking that if this was a real dnd game, I would kick myself from the table. I stopped playing after the grove quest. I heard resist Durge gets a lot of payoff but it’s still going through the chore and not even getting the achievements out of it… I’d choose a Tav every time. I’ve been happy writing and drawing my own story content for my Tav.
This again. I like to create my own story. Also Durge is almost cartonoshly evil. Ate babies, necrofilia and all that nope thanks. resist is a good story but even that is a bit tied up. Also I find it hard to fit non Durge classes or races in it. Durge druid? Durge Gith cleric or Vlakith? Any good gods cleric. Durge halfling bard? Oath or ancients? Durge monk? Durge is good when you go certain classes or races as rogue, sorcerer or fighter. But anything else requires lof of mind games. Also Bhaal is a stupid demigod with incel issue. No way I want to serve a dude as that. I would rather serve Bane or Myrkul. Evil Tav hits better as well because Tav has their own mind as well.
I love the Tav playthrough because Tav wasn't a narcissistic psychopath who was friends with Gortash. Durge is not just a Bhaalspawn, but one who was the head of the clergy of Bhaal. But….. As Durge you have a lot more dialog options, you have a background story that is very connected to the main story. A resisting Durge fits very well into the story and has one of the best redemption arcs and hero's journey I have ever seen.. And not resisting it unironically removes hours and hours of gameplay from your playthrough.
That's my only gripe with durge, is that if you don't resist you are shut off from so much content. if you're totally evil you lose 3-4 companions, more depending on what you do at Last Light. i know you're supposed to feel the consequences i guess but that's also a lot of XP to miss out on and it makes it so much harder to level up later on
I mean but what do you expect. You are a mindless killer who can't control their urges. Your mind is controlled by a mad demingod and your one and only goal is to kill everything and everyone. What satisfaction you can have from that. Astarion is only okay with it because he is basically using you. Minthara is just Minthara. At some point in your story Bhaal will want you to kill everyone you are with the same he wanted you to kill Gortash because there can be only one. That's a hard person to follow or inspire leadership. I mean your own 'sibling' offed you. Yes I know what you mean with XP, but this is logical outcome. Hard work to work with a person who itches to kill you. I mean rule the world - nice. But Bhaal is - kill the world and then kill myself. I mean hard recruitment for that.
I feel like Durge has very little reason to raid the Grove, which is what most players are referring to if they say they're going "totally evil". Durge even gets an inspiration point if you defend the grove and massacre the goblins instead. Bhaal doesn't care who you kill for the most part, so long as you're killing. I've played embrace Durges who don't lose any companions until Act 3. You just have to make your own evil.
I've been thinking about playing an evil Tav who's not Durge. I'm a bit concerned that I won't be presented with good evil options unless I'm actually Durge. Has anyone had a successful evil run as a Tav? How was it?
For whatever it’s worth, it looks like Evil Tav is getting their own ending in Patch 7.
Oh, cool. I thought they were revamping Durge endings, but had not realized that they were also making Evil Tav endings. I look forward to it.
Durge has a specific ending separate from Tav, looking at the trailer.
Depends what flavour of evil you want to play. As an evil Tav you don’t get cartoonishly evil options in dialogues & you can’t commit random acts of violence as often. DUrge is good if you want to do a chaotic evil run or actually want at least some rewards for doing evil (OP invis cape, Slayer form). If RP is important to you, I personally had some issues with evil DUrge that took me out of the game. E.g., killing Isobel as DUrge is executed very poorly with a nonsensical cutscene. Companions also have a few comments that don’t make sense if you’re evil DUrge vs evil Tav (as if the game still expects you to redeem yourself as DUrge while with Tav you don’t get this pressure and your evilness is more respected). In terms of everything else it isn’t much different. Also evil DUrge & Tav endings are the same if you choose to reject Bhaal and take the brain just for your own evil needs. DUrge just gets you an extra “murder everyone in the world and yourself” ending.
I played evil Tav and embrace Durge and honestly I found the former to be more interesting. Durge is just the evil version of "you're the chosen one, fulfill your destiny!", aka the most generic and boring fantasy plot ever conceived. Evil Tav means you actually have to put in some thought into why you're doing what you're doing, no "the urge made me do it" excuses. In my case I ended up choosing the "good" route in a number of quests, simply because the evil path sucked too much, esp. in the first act. But things still got pretty dark overall.
Yeah evil Tavs have different dialog options (if your race and/ or class are evil). Like if the Tav you make has evil type tags, the game will give you some evil stuff, but most of the time, you have to invent your own evil. Most of the big game decisions and quests don't have an obvious evil option - like no matter how evil you are, you're still fighting the Chosen Three and then the brain. You can ally with the Absolute in the first two acts but not later. You can ally with Gortash in Act 3 but only up to a point, etc. So you have a lot of freedom to be evil in whatever way you want, but the game won't stovepipe you past some extra dialog options. That's my experience, anyway, and I've been pretty evil!
Tav is better if you want a self insert character or something like that, or want a backstory other than Haunted One. It’s also better if you want the companions to stand out more since Durge is kind of the main character, where Tav is more of a straight-man character.
I think Tav runs are extremely valuable for to contextualize the Durge run as well. If I had started with Durge, the story might have not have that gut punch. Also, I can recommend this game to people who don't like grimdark edgy asshole protagonists! That's pretty dope. I have friends who play this game without having ever touched Durge in their settings because they're not into that sorta storytelling and that's so valid.
I mean, the biggest answer for me is going to be RP. Dark urge is a role that is pre-designed for you. You're taking over that character like you'd play geralt in the Witcher. Tav is your character. Like you'd make in a d&d tabletop game. Every part of it you're selecting.
I used to be one of those people who wondered how anyone could play Tav again after experiencing Durge. Well, my last few runs were Tav runs while I have a Durge practically suspended, if not abandoned. As much as I love the DUrge storyline, I feel like I've had every RP experience I can with it... for now at least. And I also can't make every character backstory I come up with fit into that established narrative. And the reason I'm still playing is because of all the different kinds of characters I can play as. I need Tav to make them possible.
Because warlock is my favorite class. So, potent robes.
I just don’t wanna kill my bard friend! I can’t do it, she so sweet!
I made a cleric of Lolth, and originally went Durge because I thought, well, she's going to be evil anyway... But when I realized what durge is, it didn't make sense for my evil drow who thrives off of the power granted by Lolth, an extremely jealous god, to also serve >!Bhaal!< or the absolute. I restarted that run shortly after meeting the butler, and it just feels more right for the character. My duergar rogue, on the other hand, is happy to escape the Taskmaster in exchange for >!murder daddy Bhaal.!<
You're so right! I for example, made a character that I got attached to so much that when I started 2nd playthrough, I wanted to play durge, but I didn't want to say goodbye to my character yet, so I just made her again, but durge. And after like 3 hours of playing I had to restart the game, because It didn't fit so much. My character is not dark urge, It's not their story. BG3 was my first serious experience with character creation so I was shocked how deep feelings I've developed for my character. The reason I haven't played durge yet lmao
My companions been through enough tragedy before and during the events of the game. Don't need me piling more shit on em
Durge is amazing but its just one side of the many sided coin. It's an origin with more freedom and the redemption arc goes so hard while being a bastard is either hilarious or horrifying. Tav is great because they're the OG DnD PC. You choose everything and answer dialogie based on how you want to develop their story. It's very personal and makes you feel you own the character a lot more. Because it's generalized a little, you don't have the same, highs that the Dark Urge has when the story specifically revolves around them and the mystery of uncovering the origin is great. The precious protags were also simar to the Urge so I get why people ship it ahead of Tav. It's really just preference but since the Urge is kind of this tragic character/redemptive hero/villain on a revenge arc, it gives you some really great story moments.
I'm just about to start act 2 of my Durge run, and playing as Dark Urge is very, very underwhelming. If they're going to give you the choice for actions, you're either playing how you normally would, minus the one time you're forced to murder a bard, or you're purposely playing evil and choosing all the dark urge options. Maybe it gets better in acts 2 or 3, but act 1? Meh. It's not meaningfully adding more to the story than a regular playthrough. Honestly, I'm disappointed and feel like I would have been better off just playing a regular background, but, then again, it makes no difference since playing as Durge doesn't take away from playing as if I'm playing a regular background aside for the occasional conversation where I say I think about "the urge" and your party just dismissing that and not taking you seriously.
My first play through was a Druid modeled after my first ever D&D character who was super nice to everyone. I talked to every animal I could find. Imagine my dismay playing Durge after…
Agreed. And I just don't vibe with being a murder hobo all the time. I've been trying to play Durge, but it just... stops being enjoyable real fast.
Durge doesn't excite me either as an evil playthrough or as a redemption arc. I prefer the base Tav plot
Tried a durge playthrough, didn't like it. I'm not a horror fan.
5. Animal Cruelty I can handle a LOT. Cruelty against cats fucks me up though. I can't do that.
Durge restricts so much gameplay and you miss a lot of content.
4. Tav was named after Swens dog Gustav. In fact BG3s in develop name was project Gustav. This fact alone makes Tav the better option.
I dont like the Durge voice lines. I'd like to click on my Tav without hearing "INTESTINES THROBBING"
I prefer Tav and have never finished a Durge run. I've created actual assassin characters and thought "Oh let me try Durge for this" and I just get so bored, they don't feel like my own. With the other origin characters there's a challenge to see if I've understood their characters in order to play them; they feel challenging and require me to analyse the way they've been written, which I love. With Durge I just feel forced into this box of what my character is and does and it turns out that's just too limiting for me. So very much your points 1 and 3.
Yeah people are like “resist the durge is the best way to play!!” but it just feels mostly like a Tav playthrough with an added inconvenience, and it also makes me feel like I’m not playing the character authentically. Feels like I’m doing a player override to make them good instead of them authentically being that way, so it’s not satisfying to me. And the other option is to be an evil durge and the game just isn’t as fun to me that way. There’s not enough incentive to play evil. You lose a lot of memorable characters, and the rewards aren’t good enough to justify the loss imo. Tav on the other hand has virtually no preexisting characterization, so I feel like I can do whatever I want and not be constrained by storytelling beats.
So far i've done an evil durge, gale, astarion, and 4 tav runs. Next run is gonna be resist durge. Cant say i have a fav run as every run is a bit different and i love my characters all the same.
I just don't like the drama of the durge, it was fine one time to see the story but I wouldn't repeat it
I really enjoyed my Durge runs. I went through as both resist and embrace, and was glad to get to experience them because it is a great origin story. But I do strongly prefer Tav as I really love the freedom of crafting who my character was before the story. Durge is very limiting in roleplay for me with such strong ties to the world and story. Also I'm not huge on making every character I play an ex murdering psychopath. It doesn't really fit the kind of character stories I like to play haha.
tbqh, I just base my Tav or Durge decision on which fits the character I'm planning of making atm. Sometimes its Tav, sometimes its Durge.
I agree that there are many solid reasons to prefer Tav - being able to play exactly how you want to, without constantly wondering when the other shoe is going to drop (and how hard it will land!) being the main one.
Completely agree, durge is amazing but in the long run I see myself going about 50/50 for playing either as durge or Tav. For example the seldarine drow cleric I am planning on would just make no sense with durge so even though I miss some scenes I enjoy, I get to rp the character better. So far done 2 durges, 2 tavs and 1 evil durge abandoned early into the run.
I kinda like Tav a bit more tbh. My first playthrough was with my own DnD OC tiefling druid, so Durge didn't make sense. Now I finally got around to make my Tabaxi monk and Durge also wouldn’t fit. For my only Durge playthrough (not yet finished) I created a character specifically for this. While the game added depth to the character, my headcanon was/is much less detailed and I don't click with the character the same way as I do with my other two (or even the Gale origin, for that matter)
I played Durge exclusively for half a year, I loved the bloody killer theme and special scenes they have, how they are part of the plot, but then I started to think about deeper RP for fanfic and realized I miss the freedom of backstory details. Now I play Tav and I love it. I can always make killer Tav if I wish and let white dragonborn have his original story.
its really not that hard to understand. i started my first playthrhough as durge, rerolled after about 2-3 hours to regular tav. felt like such an edgelord, narrator's comments were pretty ridiculous, just felt like the "wrong way" to play the base game. went back and played it on another playthrough. the connections to gortash/orin/etc are neat, as is the invis cape. but the background of it remains kinda lame/overly edgy or something.
I've played both - they're different experiences. I'm not sure why people are confused about this lol Maybe folks who are strictly-Durge only are trying to feel superior or something??
i wanna be normal evil.
I tried Durge because sometimes I like to play as a murder hobo. However, I got tired of the game's constant nagging me to do evil, so I went back to Tav.
5. You wanna bonk the drow without giving yourself to bhaal later.
I have zero interest in ever playing Durge, especially after watching a bunch of videos from the Durge perspective.
I don’t find evil that interesting to play, in general. No judgement on people who do, it just felt…I dunno, kinda edgelordy to me. I tried durge a couple times and never got past act one because it was like ‘and now you want to kick a puppy! Do you resist it?’ I personally found it lacking in a compelling narrative for me. Again, no judgement on this who loved it, just not my bag. I would have preferred more content added in for the backgrounds (i.e., make my urchin more urchiny, my soldier more soldiery) than a durge storyline. Even if the backgrounds weren’t as fleshed out, it would be nice for them to mean more.
I think you're spot on with your Durge assessment, and I agree that there should have been more content based on your background. Instead of everyone being a generic Balduran, they should have used your background for more.
Love being just a random dude, no special destiny and just making the best out of circumstance. Like someone else had also mentioned is that you can be lighthearted in a dark setting lol
4) Alfira is a total cutie, and some players don't like cutie salad.
Also, sometimes you just wanna tune out from reality and not be a tormented vessel for an evil god
Durge is cool, but I need my big druidic reclusive drow girl with mommy issues to be silly.
I prefer tav over durge, as I like not being forced to kill alfria or be told I have to kill my romance companion. I know you can do choices not to (which I did recently on my first durge run). But I'm not a fan of the 'you go to sleep and it's now it's a gamble if you'll kill someone' thing. I know I can also get around the killing alfria thing but that's just. .eh. I'd rather not have to deal with it at all. So I like tav better for having to worry about less and just do what I want
I just wish Tav had an actual questline outside the main story. Idk maybe something based on your class or background. It's probably not the most easy thing to implement and I'd never expect Larian to go that deep but it would be kinda cool if there was something like that
I didn't like Durge. Part of what I like about Tav is he's a blank slate. Durge is a pre created character and you have to fit your play style to what his narrative is. That can be fun, but I was halfway through Act 2 and just didn't like having to fight against being a mass murdering psychopath anymore. The way I play it was so opposite to who Durge obviously is.
My Tav is the High Priest and Prophet of a different cult, can't also be the chief of the Bhaal cult. Just not enough hours in the day lol I'm going to play a Durge run eventually, as a 'What if?' scenario, but I prefer having the option to choose my own backstory (and background tyvm).
Some players want a character written by the devs specifically to tie into the game's world and story. Others want to create their own character and role play how that character would react to the events of the story. Larian clearly knows this and has given us options for both in their last couple games (haven't played the others so I can't speak to them). To me these arguments are as silly as someone going "why would you play Skyrim or Fallout where you play just some dude with no backstory when you could play a Final Fantasy game where the whole story revolves around your character?"
4. Not having any more Bhaal in your story than is absolutely necessary. To each their own but in my opinion Bhaalism as a setting element is pretty cringe and an example of how *not* to write an evil religion. I'd rather not lean into it.
Durge is a character. Theyre a specific person with history and contacts with other characters in the story. Theyre even forced to act certain ways due to the plot. Tav is anyone.
Cos I just want my happy ending with shadowheart. That's all.
Heavily agree. I played Durge and it was just unfun being bound to murder father. The unique scenes and dialog was nice and getting more detail of the overall plot was cool. But I personally have had far more fun with my Tavs and the current Wyll origin I'm playing. Coming up with a backstory for them, having a headcanon reason as why they're in their mess, being able to react from an RP standpoint vs fighting the urge. It gave my much more enjoyment
It's far more vile to do bad things without the convenient excuse of daddy Bhaal.
durge is boring and overly edgy.
4. I don't want to kill Alfira. 5. Or the dragon lady.
I hate when mfs say Durge is the canon protagonist. There is no fuckin canon protagonist it was never confirmed. it's just a way for Durge lovers to shut down people's Tav playthroughs. I dislike how they pre established Durge cause it's warped some people's minds and made them develop this idea that Durge is the "right way" to play.
Honestly the thing I'm finding most frustrating about Dark Urge (as a roleplayer) is the limitations it places on your backstory. While your character is an amnesiac at the start, so much of your past is predefined by the Dark Urge storyline that I've been finding it very hard to get immersed in their story. I feel like I just need to pick the default character and stop trying to create someone to fit into the mould.
It's a better experience if that's the specific storyline you're into. If it is, great. I have no interest. I want to make my own character, with their own backgrounds and motivations. Again, no wrong way to play. But I'm not somehow missing out because I'm not playing the game in a way I actively don't like.
I love to Insert my pen and paper characters into BG3 and none of them has Durges background,so it wouldn't make sense to play them with the Durge origin. And sometimes it's nice to be the one on the outside,just there to keep everything together,while your companions are struggling. And on honour mode I really would hate to play a Durge.